Marked Ones: Advent of the Demon Prince

Grimm was apparently a darker entity with tendencies towards mischief and mayhem. It whispered ideas into Lucius\'s head on occasion and asked him to do many unspeakable things. Luz, on the other hand, spoke of only positive things he could or should do. Essentially, the two entities were polar opposites.

Under any other circumstance, Kalliope would have assumed him to be insane rather than believing that voices inside his head were separate individuals. However, he also informed her that Rena had a run-in with Grimm once as a child, though they had never really had an in-depth conversation about who or what she spoke to.

Because they never spoke about it, that meant Rena did not know to what extent Lucius was familiar with the two entities, nor was the woman aware that Luz also existed. Knowing this made Kalliope feel a little happy and prideful that she was aware of something that his primary lover was not.

"Miss Kalliope, I have returned." Lyrah\'s sing-song voice rang throughout the embassy.

It seemed the young woman had returned after being out on the town for a while. When Lucius assigned her to watch over Rubellia and Lyrah, she understood the importance of the mission. Kalliope swore that she would not let a single hair on their heads be disturbed as she would keep constant vigil over them.

However, on the very next day after they departed, Lyrah went missing. Kalliope searched through much of the capital to find the girl, but she was nowhere to be found. She had managed to evade a master tracker and beastman such as herself.

Kalliope returned to the embassy early the next morning exhausted, and wanted to rest before beginning the search again. Lyrah was happily humming whilst cooking breakfast with the maid staff and Mistress Rubellia.

Every day was like that since and eventually Kalliope just gave up. Any time she asked what it was that Lyrah was doing all she would answer was, "Just running some errands." After giving that non-answer, she would follow it up with a comment of, "Natali had no problem keeping up with me."

Kalliope felt a strong urge to slap the girl right there, but restrained herself so she did not cause an international incident on top of angering Lucius…

"Kalliope."

The wolf-girl rolled her eyes. "What is it, Miss Lyrah?"

"Would you like to join me on my errands tomorrow?"

"Really? You aren\'t going to leave me behind again?" She gave the black-haired girl a dirty glare which only served to make the girl laugh.

"Yes, I think I should be nicer to my future sister-in-law."

"Wh=wh-what? Wait! Did you see that happening in the future?" Kalliope squeaked out. Her tail had given away her emotions and was wagging fast enough to create a nice breeze.

"Who knows? Maybe I just thought I would say something nice to you to get you to let your guard down?" Lyrah placed a hand over her mouth and giggled before excusing herself to go prepare the placement.

Kalliope could not keep the frustrated growl that was forming in her throat. The rumbling sound made Rubellia smile at the two girls\' antics. Kalliope was about to leave and sulk, but a shout from the dining area accompanied the sound of breaking glass.

"Kalliope! Come, quickly! It\'s Lyrah!" Rubellia shouted.

Following the sound of panic, she quickly darted into the dining room and saw Lyrah collapsed on the ground surrounded by the shards of a broken plate. Her eyes had rolled into the back of her head and her lips were moving silently.

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Kalliope hurried and placed her on her side to ensure she would not swallow her own tongue or choke on saliva. One of the maids brought over a decorative pillow to rest Lyrah\'s head on as well. Everyone fussed over the unconscious oracle for several minutes and wondered if they should get a healer or not.

Thankfully, before they sent someone out, Lyrah awoke and shouted, "No! Stop… I\'m fine… if you fetch someone, they\'ll know."

"Who will know? Know what?" Rubellia asked quickly.

"The elders. They have been wondering where I have been. I have been trying to avoid them so they do not lock me away with my mother while Natali is away. I also do not wish to give them any prophecies." Lyrah answered quietly.

Kalliope sighed and nodded in understanding. It was most likely that the \'errands\' the girl was running were trying to confuse any trackers that these so-called \'elders\' would have out searching for her. It was perfectly reasonable to not want to be locked away somewhere for any length of time. Especially after you had experienced freedom.

"Alright. So, tell us. You had a vision? You can share. Everyone in this compound reports directly to Lucius. You can share any information you have freely." Kalliope promised while eyeing the maid staff who all nodded quickly in the affirmative of her statement.

"Alright… It was a vision of the academy. It was under attack. So much blood…" Lyrah whispered.

"I thought you could only have visions of Lucius?"

"I did as well… however I did \'see\' his eyes, though I never saw his face… so it was connected to him somehow…" the oracle continued.

"Wait, Lucius would not attack the academy would he?" Rubellia asked. "If he did, Kalliope would stop him."

"No, I wouldn\'t." Kalliope said instantly. "If it\'s him against the world, I will stand at his back, sword at the ready Mistress Rubellia."

"Don\'t worry…" Lyrah interjected. "I do not know who was attacking, but it was not Lucius. That I can assure you all. I do not know who they were… but it will happen and… I do not know when."

Kalliope nodded and helped Lyrah get to a more comfortable seating position on a chair instead of the floor. For the next few hours they spoke back and forth about what to do and other plans for the eventual attack. Lyrah insisted that they do not make the information public at this time, until or unless they figure out who it might be.

Revealing it now would result in the claim being ignored without evidence. And if they revealed that the information came from an oracle, it would bring them back to the issue of Lyrah being found out and exposed to the elders. Their best solution at this time was to utilize the King\'s Shadow agents available to try and look for whispers of anything academy related.